


Missing

by Lizardbeth



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Future, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-22 22:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizardbeth/pseuds/Lizardbeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing

**Author's Note:**

> written for a comment ficathon on LJ in 12/2010 and discovered that I'd never put it here.

* * *

Caroline stays with Stefan, after even Damon gives up on him and goes. Stefan does nothing but twist his ring on his finger and stare outside. He doesn't eat, he doesn't move, and when he does speak, she wishes he hadn't.

"I can't die, because then they died for nothing," he whispers. "But I can't make it stop..."

She puts her arms around him but she's no more than a tiny bandage on a wound that gushes blood. Then she gets an idea. It takes a week, but Stefan stays in the window and twists his ring, and she's not sure he realizes time has passed.

"What is it, Salvatore?" Elijah asks from the entryway, making her start with surprise since she hadn't heard him come in the house.

At first Stefan has no idea why the vampire elder is there, but then he glances at Caroline and understands this was her doing. She hadn't really considered why she thought Elijah would be a good idea, maybe just because he's had plenty of experience dealing with grief and death and he's always been the least annoying of the Originals, but Stefan has his own idea of what the Original can do for him. Stefan twists his daywalking ring and he requests, "I -- I want you to compel me to forget them. Elena and Katherine. I try to not care, but it's not working. Make it stop. Please."

Elijah frowns. "Are you certain?"

"They both died to protect me," he says, voice breaking. "Just take it away."

Elijah warns, "If I take it, you cannot change your mind. It'll be gone."

"Do it." He stands still, and Elijah looks into his eyes. They both vamp out, and Elijah murmurs, "You hated Katherine. You're pleased she is dead. And Elena was nothing to you but the friend of your fledgling Caroline. You never loved either of them. Forget."

Caroline bites her lip, wanting to stop it, but she says nothing in protest.

Then Stefan blinks and shakes his head a little, as Elijah steps back a pace. "It's done."

"Done what?" Stefan asks and he smiles.

Caroline forces a laugh. "Elijah was telling us how he found the last of Klaus' minions. You forgot to eat this morning again, didn't you?"

"I did," he admits ruefully, as if he'd been merely busy, not frozen with grief. He slides a hand around her waist. She's surprised but doesn't move away. He kisses her cheek. "Thank you. You wanna go hunt? You're invited, too," he says to Elijah and adopts an Elmer Fudd voice, "Be vewy quiet, we're hunting wabbits."

Elijah says no with a bemused smile.

In the forest, Stefan teases her over the way she kills the rabbit without looking at it, and she relaxes. She smiles back when he smiles, and their eyes catch. The grief and guilt are gone, the weight of his love for those two women is gone. He's free. It's easy for her to pretend along with him, until she forgets, too.

Time passes, as it does. She and Stefan move on. She still teases him about his frowny faces, but in truth he laughs more than he frowns. And if she feels a twinge of guilt about Elena, she figures he's better off and she keeps the secret. It's like nothing happened, and they're content together.

In the early morning when Caroline sleeps beside him, Stefan turns the ring on his finger and he wonders why he feels alone.


End file.
